


Disturbia

by chocoCate



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Futuristic!AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 16:15:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18318815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chocoCate/pseuds/chocoCate
Summary: Finally Katara meets the shadow who has been following them and she will get the answers she craves.





	Disturbia

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the COWT9, prompt "Red"

Katara can feel the moment the shadow stops following them. The same relief she feels, she can see it written on Aang and Sokka’s faces. Toph doesn’t participate, but Katara assumes she didn’t witness all the times the shadow tried to stop them with fire and pain. For her, the shadow is just a creepy stalker of the Avatar.

“Not really, I know your stories.” Toph never avoids a chance to disagree with her. “What he did is really messed up. But, his steps have been faltering for a while now.”

It is enough for Aang to shift his attention from the nice neighbourhood they are passing through to Toph. “What do you mean?”

The girl taps her foot to the ground, enough to bring attention to it. “I can feel it with my bending. Every day he seemed less and less convinced about this,” she makes a weird open gesture with her hands. “I figured it wouldn’t take a long time before the guy turned around. And I was right.” she concludes, arms crossed and a satisfied expression on her face.

“The guy?” Sokka asks. Katara knows he doesn’t care if this change of heart was abrupt or not, and she silently agrees with him; it doesn’t change the trouble they had to go through. 

“Yeah, yeah, the shadow or whatever.”

“No, I mean. It’s a guy?”

“Woah, you’ve never seen him? And I was supposed to be the blind one!”

“Well, that guy is a ninja,” Sokka answers sheepishly. “We only got just enough peeks of, well, him, to guess it was the same person - it’s not our fault!”

As Toph proceeds to mock them, Katara is distracted. It doesn’t change anything, but she still wonders, now. With Toph’s revelations, the shadow has become a human in her eyes, and questions upon questions crowd her mind. Who is this person? Why has he changed his mind? Why try to hurt and capture them in the first place? What has changed?

It’s Sokka voice that brings her back to reality. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter,” he says, irritated and defensive, “if this is true, we won’t see him again. Good riddance!”

 

As it often happens, Sokka is proven wrong.

Outside of the glamorous hyper-tech centre of Ba Sing Se there are run-down buildings and ruined streets, unstable lights and old-style shops selling battered foot and tech scraps. Amidst the poverty, Katara also sees the simplicity and contentedness of those who live with a little more than just the minimum. It’s an oxymoron, the vibrant life and the hardship coexisting in the same place.

Toph agrees with her. “This is so much better than those boring nobles.”

“Too bad Aang and Sokka didn’t come with us.” When she suggested they go for a walk, they vehemently refused, citing some mysterious reasons.

“Who cares! If they want to ke-” In the midst of her loud proclamation Toph stops walking and speaking. Is it a joke? “That dude is here.”

“Who?”

“The ninja - shadow, whatshisname - he’s just ahead of us.”

While there is people out on the street, Katara’s view is unobstructed and sure enough she can see the shape of a man clad in black walking before them, the clearest she’s ever seen him.

She has the highest faith in Toph’s instincts, but it still feels too surreal. “Are you sure it’s him?” 

“Yea I am!”

Katara doesn't think. All the questions and the rage can finally reach an end, today, but only if she can catch the guy. So she sprints after him.

"What are you doing?" she can hear Toph screaming - but it's not only her who hears her.

The shadow turns, his head covered by the black hoodie and a black scarf only leaving one of his eyes uncovered. He sees Katara coming, and  _ runs _ .

What an interesting turn of events.

"Go to Sokka and Aang!" it's the only thing Katara screams. She doesn't give herself the luxury to turn to see if Toph has heard her.

She his on his tails, not caring of their surroundings, matching him step for step. Her legs hurt and she's wheezing, but she  _ must  _ know, and she is not going to catch him by running alone - as she runs over gutters, she has an idea.

The water is pliant under her hands and takes a whip's shape. She throws it at his feet, and he stumbles.

She sees his eye again as he regain his balance, but she can't read it, can't infer any information. Why doesn't he attack her like he did in the past?

As she's about to throw some the water at his feet and freeze it, he pulls into an old half-destroyed warehouse. Multicolored graffiti that have lost their vibrant colours depict scenes from old Avatar legends - it’s weird to see the silhouette of this stranger, who has chased Aang for months, in front of them.

"Who- who the hell are- you?" Katara asks between wheezes.

The guy is bent on himself, just like her, and turns towards her with heavy breaths. “You- don’t need- to know.”

“Answer me!” she screams. In her rage, ice shards flow from her hands, aimed to keep him stuck to the wall.

Red.

A shield of pure red fire rises from the stranger. The hotness in the air melts her shards immediately. The flames then move like a red snake around the guy, investing the warehouse with an eerie scarlet light - it looks like hell.

As he raises one hand, Katara realizes. She isn’t weak by any means, but she shouldn’t have pursued this guy alone - he’s a powerful firebender, and how could have she forgotten that? One mistake and she could be done for, without her friends knowing what happened to her. 

_ Don’t get distracted, now. Be careful Katara. Defensive stand. He could attack any moment now.  _

But he doesn’t. Instead he grabs the black cloth covering more than half of his face and pulls.

Katara doesn’t see him raising his hands in a non-threatening gesture, but even so, she forgets to stay on the defensive, horrified by his face. A scar, red as the flames around him, covers all the left side of his face, and a milky eye stares back at her unseeing. It’s like a nightmare in a human form.

“I am Zuko.”


End file.
